For those utterly sick of the shutdown and the absurd Tea Party hostage drama, today’s Lunch Links will provide a brief respite from that particular bit of madness. That’s not to say, however, that there isn’t other madness out there to highlight.

Take, for instance, the misguided folks at Eastern Wayne Middle School in Goldsboro who somehow got the bright idea to lead students to believe that an armed and masked robber was on the campus as part of a “safety exercise.” WTVD in Raleigh has the story.

Finally, speaking of music (and with a nod to President Obama’s strong stance in the shutdown crisis – sorry, we’d intended not to mention that subject) here are both Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and the Traveling Willburys with Petty’s iconic anthem about not backing down: